Christ the Redeemer From the Law

Acts 10:1-34 Do Not Call Unclean That Which I Call Clean
1In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officera named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian
Regiment. 2He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave
generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. 3One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a
vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said.
4Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What is it, sir?” he asked the angel.
And the angel replied, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an
offering! 5Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 6He is staying
with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”
7As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout
soldier, one of his personal attendants. 8He told them what had happened and sent them off to
Joppa.
Peter Visits Cornelius
9The next day as Cornelius’s messengers were nearing the town, Peter went up on the flat roof to
pray. It was about noon, 10and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a
trance. 11He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four
corners. 12In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. 13Then a voice said to him,
“Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”
14“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared
impure and unclean.b”
15But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” 16The
same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.
17Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius
found Simon’s house. Standing outside the gate, 18they asked if a man named Simon Peter was
staying there.
19Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have
come looking for you. 20Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry,
for I have sent them.”
21So Peter went down and said, “I’m the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”
22They said, “We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He is a devout and God-fearing
man, well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his
house so that he can hear your message.” 23So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The
next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.
24They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called
together his relatives and close friends. 25As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and
worshiped him. 26But Peter pulled him up and said, “Stand up! I’m a human being just like
you!” 27So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.
28Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home
like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of

anyone as impure or unclean. 29So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now tell
me why you sent for me.”
30Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock
in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. 31He told me,
‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by
God! 32Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in
the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ 33So I sent for you at once, and it was
good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has
given you.”
34Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. 35In every nation he
accepts those who fear him and do what is right. 36This is the message of Good News for
the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of
all. 37You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began
preaching his message of baptism. 38And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the
Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
39“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him
to death by hanging him on a cross,c 40but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God
allowed him to appear, 41not to the general public,d but to us whom God had chosen in
advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from
the dead. 42And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one
appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. 43He is the one all the
prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven
through his name.”
Galatians 2:17-21 Die To The Law
17But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found
guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely
not! 18Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19For when
I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all
its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20My old self has been crucified with Christ.e It
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For
if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Galatians 3:19-22 The Promise To Come
19Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But
the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his
law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. 20Now a
mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not
use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.
21Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises?l Absolutely not! If the law
could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. 22But the Scriptures

declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing
in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 9:13-15,24-26 Christ The Mediator
13Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse
people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14Just think how much more the blood of Christ will
purify our consciences from sinful deedsf so that we can worship the living God. For by the power
of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15That is why
he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are
called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set
them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
24For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the
true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our
behalf. 25And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest
here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an
animal. 26If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the
world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the agek to remove sin
by his own death as a sacrifice.
Colossians 2:6-23 Walk in Christ
6And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7Let
your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow
strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
8Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that
come from human thinking and from the spiritual powersa of this world, rather than from
Christ. 9For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.b 10So you also are
complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ
performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.c 12For you
were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life
because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
13You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then
God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14He canceled the record of the
charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15In this way, he disarmedd the
spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
16So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain
holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17For these rules are only shadows of the
reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. 18Don’t let anyone condemn you by
insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels,e saying they have had visions about
these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19and they are not connected to
Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and
ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

20You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So
why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21“Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t
touch!”? 22Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use
them. 23These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious selfdenial,
and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil
desires.
Galatians 3:1-14 Tbe Law of Christ vs The Law of Moses
1Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death
was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2Let me ask you
this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course
not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about
Christ. 3How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you
now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? 4Have you experienceda so much
for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?
5I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you
obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.
6In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his
faith.”b 7The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.
8What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles
right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago
when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”c 9So all who put their faith in Christ share
the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
10But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for
the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands
that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”d 11So it is clear that no one can be made right with
God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous
person has life.”e 12This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is
through obeying the law that a person has life.”f
13But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on
the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the
Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”g 14Through Christ Jesus, God has
blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are
believers might receive the promisedh Holy Spirit through faith.

On the Law and the Gospel
(A letter by J. C. Philpot)
My dear Sir,
In one of your letters you express the wish that I should give my views
upon this point– "Why, in my judgment, the law is not the believer's
rule of life." In doing so I shall take the occasion to offer my thoughts on
these three distinct points–
1. Why the law is not the believer's rule of life.
2. What is the rule.
3. Disprove the objection cast upon us that our views lead to
doctrinal or practical antinomianism.
By a believer, I understand one who by faith in Christ is delivered from
the curse and bondage of the law, and who knows something
experimentally of the life, light, liberty and love of the glorious gospel
of the grace of God. By the law I understand chiefly, though not
exclusively, the law of Moses. And by the rule of life I understand an
outward and inward guide, by following which a believer directs his
walk and conversion before God, the Church and the world.
It is very necessary to bear strictly in mind that we are speaking wholly
and solely a believer. What has the law to do with a believer in Christ
Jesus? Is he required by the revealed will of God to take the law as a
guiding rule in his life? I answer, No; and for several reasons.
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1. Why the law is not the believer's rule of life.
God does not leave us at liberty to take at will one part of the law
and leave the other. It must be taken as a whole or left as a whole, for
God has so revealed it. I cannot find in any part of God's Word any
mitigation of its terms, or any halving of it, so that, according to the
views of many divines who have written on the subject, we may be dead
to it as a covenant, yet alive to it as a rule. The essential and
distinguishing characteristic of the law is that it is a covenant of works,
requiring full and perfect obedience, attaching a tremendous curse to
the least infringement of its commands. If then I, as a believer, take the
law as my rule of life, I take it with its curse; I put myself under its yoke,
for in receiving it as my guide, (and if I don't do this it is not my rule,) I
take it with all its conditions and subject to all its penalties....The
indispensable connection between a covenant and its rules is clearly
shown in Ga 5:1-6 where the apostle testifies to "every man that is
circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole law". It is idle to talk of
taking the law for a rule of life, and not for a covenant; for the two
things are essentially inseparable; and as he who keeps the whole law
and yet offends in one point, is guilty of all Jas 2:10 so he who takes but
one precept of the law for his rule, (as the Galatians took that of
circumcision,) by taking that one, virtually adopts the whole, and by
adopting the whole puts himself under the curse which attaches to their
infringement.
People speak very fluently about the law being a rule of life who think
little of the resulting consequences; for among them is this, that its
written precepts and not its mere spirit, must be the rule. Now, these
precepts belong to it only as a covenant, for they were never disjoined
by the Authority who gave them, and what God has joined together let
no man put asunder. To show this connection between the precepts and
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the covenant is the chief drift of the Epistle to the Galatians, who were
looking to the law and not the gospel, and having begun in the Spirit,
were attempting to be made perfect by the flesh. Read with enlightened
eyes, this blessed Epistle would at once decide in favor of "the gospel" as
our guiding rule of Christian conduct and conversation. Observe how
Paul chides those who would so act--he calls them "foolish Galatians",
and asks who has bewitched those who they should not obey the truth
(that is, the gospel), "before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently
set forth, crucified among them." He appeals to their own experience
and asks them--"have you received the Spirit by the works of the law, or
by the hearing of faith?" He draws a line of distinction here between
those works which are done in obedience to the law as a guiding rule,
and that power of God felt in the heart which attends a preached gospel
when heard in faith, and asks them under which of the two they had
received the teaching and testimony of the blessed Spirit.
But observe, further, how he bids them "walk in the Spirit" Ga 5:16 Now
to "walk" is to live and act, and the rule which he here gives for this
living and acting is not the law but the Spirit, and he tells them of the
blessedness of this divine leading and guiding--"If you be led by the
Spirit, you are not under the law"--that is, neither as a covenant nor as
a rule--that they were free from its curse as a condemning covenant,
and from its commands as a galling yoke which neither they nor their
fathers could bear Ac 15:10 But to show them that deliverance from the
law did not set them free from a higher and more perfect rule of
obedience, he bids them "fulfill the law of Christ", which is love, a fruit
of the Spirit and not produced by the law which works wrath and
genders to bondage Ro 4:15 Ga 4:24
If we are willing to abide by the inspired Word of Truth we need to go
no further than this very Epistle to decide the whole question. For in it
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we have laid down the rule according to which believers should walk,
which is a "new creature" (or a new creation)--"For in Christ neither
circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them, and
on the Israel of God" Ga 6:15-16 Is the law or the Spirit's work upon the
heart held out here as the rule of a believers walk?
The law is strictly a covenant of works; it knows nothing of mercy,
reveals nothing of grace, and does not communicate the blessed Spirit.
Why, then, if I am a believer in Christ and have received his grace and
truth into my heart, am I to adopt for the rule of life that which does not
testify of Jesus either in the Word or in my conscience? If I am to walk
as a believer, it must be by a life of faith in the Son of God Ga 2:20 Is the
law my rule here? If it is, where are those rules to be found? "The law is
not of faith". How, then, can it lay down rules for the life of faith? If I
wish to walk as becomes a believer with the Church, what help will the
law give me there? To walk as such must be by the law of love as
revealed in Christ and made known in my heart by the power of God. If
I am to walk in the ordinances of God's house, are these to be found
revealed in the law?
We give the law its due honor. It had a glory, as the Apostle argues 2Co 3
as the ministration of death and condemnation, but this glory is done
away, and why are we to look to it now as our guiding rule? The
ministration of the Spirit, of life, and of righteousness "does much
more exceed in glory", and why are we to be condemned if we prefer the
Spirit to the letter, life to death, and righteousness to condemnation?
A rule must influence as well as guide, or else it be a dead rule. If you
chose to be guided by the killing letter which can only minister
condemnation and death, and we chose for our rule that which
ministers the Spirit, righteousness, and life, which has the better rule?
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It is much to be feared that those who thus walk and talk have still the
veil over their heart, and know nothing of what the Apostle means
when he says--"Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
Lord is there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding, as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as the Spirit of the Lord" 2Co 3:17-18
But not only have we these deductions to influence the mind in
rejecting the law as a rule for a believers walk, but we have the express
testimony of God as a warrant for so doing. We read, for instance, that
"I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" Ro 7:4
As a believer in Christ, the law is dead to me, and I am to it. The Apostle
has clearly and beautifully opened up this subject. He assumes that a
believer in Christ is like a woman is remarried after the death of her
first husband; and he declares that "she is bound by the law of her
husband as long as he lives, but if the husband be dead she is loosed
from the law of her husband" Ro 7:2 Of course the first husband is the
law, and the second husband is Christ. Now adopting the figure of
Paul's, may we not justly ask--Which is to be the rule of the wife's
conduct when remarried, the regulations of the first or the second
husband?
2. What, then, is the believer's rule of life?
Is he without rule? Is he a lawless wretch because he abandons the law
of Moses for his rule has no guide to direct his steps? God forbid! for I
subscribe heart and soul to the words of the Apostle--"Being not
without law to God, but under law to Christ" 1Co 9:21 (footnote-not
under THE law, as our version; there being no article expressed or
implied in the original). The believer then has a guiding rule which we
may briefly call--"the gospel".
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This rule we may divide into 2 branches. The gospel as written by the
divine finger upon the heart, and the gospel as written by the blessed
Spirit in the Word of truth. These do not form two distinct rules, but
the one is the counterpart of the other; and they are mutually helpful to
and corroborative of each other. One of the promises of the New
Covenant Jer 31:21-34 Heb 8:8-12 (compared), was--"I will write My law
in their inward parts and write it in their hearts." This writing of the law
of God in their heart, I need not tell you, is that which distinguishes it
from the law of Moses which was written on tables of stone--and
becomes an internal rule whereas the law of Moses was but an external
rule.
This internal rule seems to be pointed out in Ro 8:2 where we find these
words--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free
from the law of sin and death." By "the law of the Spirit of life", I
understand that guiding rule (for a rule in Scripture is frequently called
a law; the word law in Hebrew signifying literally "instruction") which
the Spirit of God, as communicating life, is in a believers heart. It is,
therefore, the liberating, sanctifying, guiding influence of the Spirit of God, in his
soul which, as a law or a rule, delivers him from "the law of sin and
death"; by which I understand not so much the law of Moses, as the
power and prevalency of his corrupt nature. If this then be a correct
exposition of the text, we have a guiding internal rule distinct from the
law of Moses, and a living rule in the heart--which the law of Moses
never was nor could be; for it did not communicate the Spirit Ga 3:2-5
But this internal rule as being "the law of the Spirit of life", has power to
lead all the children of God; for in the same chapter Ro 8:14 the Apostle
declares that "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God." This leading which is peculiar to the children of God and is an
evidence of their sonship, delivers them from the law; for if we are led
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y Spirit we are not under the law Ga 5:8 either as a covenant or as a
rule, for we have a better covenant and a better rule Heb 8:6 What is the
main use of a rule but to lead? But who can lead like a living Guide?
How can a dead law lead a living soul? The very proof that we are the
children of God is that we are led by the Spirit; and this inward leading
becomes our guiding rule.
And is it not a disparaging of the guidance of the blessed Spirit to set up
in opposition to His guiding rule, the dead law of Moses, and to call
those Antinomians who prefer a living guide to a dead letter? This
living guide is that holy, and blessed Spirit who "guides into all truth"
John 16:13
Here is the main blessedness of the work and grace upon the heart--
that the leading and guiding of the blessed Spirit form a living rule
every step of the way; for He not only quickens the soul into spiritual
life, but maintains the life which He gave, and performs (or finishes--
margin) it until the day of Jesus Christ Php 1:6. This life is eternal, as the
blessed Lord at the well of Samaria declared, that the water that he
should give the believer should be in a well of water springing up into
everlasting life John 4:14. It is then this springing well in a believer's
soul which is the guiding rule, for, as producing and maintaining the
fear of God, it is "a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death"
Pr 14:27.
But lest this 'guiding internal rule' be abused, which it might be by
'enthusiasm', and that they might not be left to substitute delusive
fancies for the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the God of all grace has given
to His people an 'external rule' in precepts of the gospel as declared by
the mouth of the Lord and His apostles, but more particularly as
gathered up in the epistles as a standing code of instruction for the
living family of God. Nor do these at all clash with the rule of which I
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have just spoken, but on the contrary harmonize entirely and
thoroughly with it; for, in fact, it is one and the same rule; the only
difference between them being that the blessed Spirit had revealed the
one in the WRITTEN Word, and by the application of that Word to the
soul makes the other to be a LIVING rule of heart.
Now there is not a single part of particle of our walk and conduct before
God or man which is not revealed and inculcated in the precepts of the
gospel; for, though we have not minute directions, we have what far
excels all such unnecessary minutiae--most blessed PRINCIPLES
enforced by every gracious and holy motive, and forming, when rightly
seen and believed, a most perfect code of inward and outward
conformity to the revealed will of God, and of all holy walk and conduct
in our families in the church and in the world.
I would say that a believer has a rule to walk by which is sufficient to
guide him in every step of the way; for if he has the eternal
quickenings, teachings and leadings of the Spirit to make his
conscience tender in the fear of God, and has a law of love written upon
the heart by the finger of God; and besides this has the precepts of the
gospel as a full and complete code of Christian obedience, what more
can he want to make him perfect in every good word and work? Heb
13:21 Can the law do any of these things for him? Can it give him life, in
the first instance, when it is a killing letter? Can it maintain life, if it is
not in its power to bestow it?
3. Disprove the objection cast upon us that our views lead to
doctrinal or practical antinomianism.
But it may be asked--Do you then set aside the two great
commandments of the law--"You shall love the Lord your God" etc.. and
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"your neighbor as yourself?" No, on the contrary, the gospel as an
external and internal rule fulfills them both, for "love is the
fulfilling of the law." Ro 13:10 So this blessed rule of the gospel not only
does not set aside the law as regards its fulfillment, but so to speak
absorbs into itself and glorifies and harmonizes its two great
commandments, by yielding to them in obedience of heart, (which the
law could not give); for the believers serves in the newness of the Spirit,
not in the oldness of the letter Ro 7:6 as Christ's freeman John 8:32 and
not as Moses's bondslave. This is willing obedience not a legal task. This
will explain the meaning of the Apostle--"For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man"--for the new man of grace, under the powerful
influence of the Holy Spirit, delights in the law of God, not only for its
holiness, but as inculcating that to do which fills the renewed heart and
the inward delight--love to God and His people.....
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